【路透社111219】智能手机战役，苹果险胜HTC

彩虹族

http://bbs.m4.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=3261945&fromuid=287770
【中文标题】智能手机战役，苹果险胜HTC
【原文标题】The No. 1 Problem of the Chinese Economy
【登载媒体】路透社
【来源地址】http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/20/us-htc-apple-patent-idUSTRE7BI24620111220
【译    者】彩虹族
【翻译方式】人工
【声    明】欢迎转载，请务必注明译者和出处 bbs.m4.cn。
【译   文】                        

2011-12-20 15:01 上传
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(Reuters) - Apple Inc scored a narrow victory against Taiwan's HTC Corp in a patent lawsuit over smartphone technology that will set the stage for further battles between rival makers in the fiercely competitive market.
In a case seen as a proxy for a larger fight between Google Inc's Android operating system and Apple's iOS, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that HTC infringed on one of four patents Apple had disputed and imposed a sales ban on some of the Taiwan maker's phones.
While the ruling is unlikely to hurt HTC as much as initially feared because it will have time to work around the offending technology and has until April before the ban becomes effective, it offers Apple ammunition to pursue other makers it believes infringe on its technology.
"This is one skirmish in one battle, which is forming a much larger war and each side has got some ammunition left," said David Wilson, a London-based partner at the intellectual property group with Herbert Smith LLP.
The patent in question, '647, relates to technology that helps users clicking on phone numbers and other types of data in a document, such as an email, to either dial directly or click on the data to bring up more information.
As it is widely used in almost all smartphones, industry experts foresee similar rulings should Apple bring other cases.
"With this ITC ruling, I think other phone companies are all scratching their heads now as to how to resolve the same technology they are using," said Melvin Li, a Hong Kong-based patent agent and counsel consultant at U.S. IP law firm Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesitic PC.
Li said he expected courts in other jurisdictions such as Canada, Australia and Europe to rule similarly on the patent.
Smartphone and tablet technology has already spawned a wealth of patent litigation.
HTC has countersued Apple and is also fighting a patent case in Germany. Microsoft Corp and Motorola Mobility also have lawsuits against each other.
Apple's battle with Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, which also uses Android software and is a supplier as well as competitor, has been especially bitter, with some 30 legal cases in 10 countries.
ANDROID DOMINATES ASIA
Apple's founder, the late Steve Jobs, was quoted in his biography as saying that he was going to "destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this."
But the Android system dominates the Asia-Pacific ex-Japan smartphone market with a 53 percent share this year versus 15 percent for Apple's iOS, according to technology research company IDC, and Android is not likely to lose much ground.
"We still expect a lot of momentum around Android and especially with Ice Cream Sandwich out now," said Bryan Ma, a Singapore-based analyst with IDC, referring to the name for the latest version of Android. "It's not really a lawsuit issue. Those are going to continue on the background anyway."
Apple had initially accused HTC of infringing 10 patents, but six were dropped from the case. The ITC judge then issued a preliminary ruling that HTC infringed two of the remaining four before issuing the final ruling on one patent.
The U.S. trade agency imposed a formal import ban on any HTC phones that infringe on the patent, starting April 19, 2012. HTC gets almost half its revenue from the U.S. market, but may not be hurt too much because the ruling gives it time to launch products that avoid the technology in question.
"It's a limited victory for a variety of reasons," said Peter Toren, an intellectual property litigator and partner with the Shulman Rogers law firm in the United States.
"It gives HTC plenty of time to implement a design-around, which I understand they are already working on," he said. "The order does in fact take effect in April, but the practical impact won't be felt for some months after that."
HTC STILL STRUGGLING
Shares in HTC rose by the daily maximum allowed 6.97 percent in Taipei trading on Tuesday, also helped by a company announcement that it would buy back 10 million of its shares.
HTC said the ruling was a win for it.
"We are very pleased with the determination and we respect it. However, the '647 patent is a small UI experience and HTC will completely remove it from all of our phones soon," Grace Lei, HTC's general counsel, said in a statement.
Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu said of the ruling: "We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."
But HTC may not be fully out of the woods yet.
It has struggled recently after slashing its fourth-quarter revenue guidance due to stiff competition and concerns still linger over whether it can convince investors it sill has the innovative streak that catapulted it from an obscure contract maker to a top brand.
"I have a negative and bearish view (on HTC)," said Yuanta Securities analyst, Bonnie Chang. "I expect its first quarter will still not be good because U.S. phone operators will worry about the injunction and will not pull in inventory until HTC's new models are approved."
She said the new phones have to prove competitive enough to regain market share because rivals Samsung and Motorola Mobility are selling very well in the fourth quarter.
(Poornima Gupta reported from SAN FRANCISCO; Additional reporting by Argin Chang in TAIPEI and Lee Chyen Yee in HONG KONG; Editing by Andre Grenon, Jonathan Standing and Matt Driskill)
苹果公司在智能手机技术专利诉讼中险胜台湾宏达公司，为苹果进一步在竞争激烈的市场与竞争对手大战做好了铺垫。

这个案子视为谷歌公司的安卓操作系统和苹果的IOS系统的一场大战的代理。美国国际贸易委员会裁定HTC侵权苹果专利权，它是苹果之前在台湾手机制造商代理和安置销售禁令的四个专利权其中之一。

然而该裁定定不太可能像原先担心的那样损害HTC，在禁令生效之前，HTC将有时间解决违例的技术直到明年四月份。裁定助长了苹果的气焰，苹果会更加纠缠其他它认为技术侵权的公司。

“这是纠纷中的一个小争论，它形成了一场大战争，每一方都留下了一些炸药。”赫伯特史密夫律师事务所知识产权集团总部位于伦敦的合伙人大卫·威尔森说。

问题中的647号专利，涉及到帮助用户点击电话号码和文件中的其他形式的数据，例如邮件，直接拨号或者点击数据带出更多的信息。

由于这一技术广泛运用于几乎所有的智能手机中，行业专家预见类似的条例苹果应该会用到其他案子。

“ITC 的规定，我认为其他手机公司现在对如何解决他们正在使用的相同技术颇感为难，”梅尔文·李说，他是香港美国知识产权法律事务所赫斯令·罗滕伯格·法利与Mesitic个人电脑在香港的专利代理人和律师顾问，李表示他希望其他国家的司法管辖区的法院，例如加拿大，澳大利亚和欧洲，在专利权上裁决相同。

职能手机和平板技术已经催生了大量诉讼。

HTC对苹果提起反诉讼，还在德国进行一场专利案。

微软公司和摩托罗拉移动公司也已经有针对对方的诉讼。

苹果与也使用安卓软件既是其供应商又是竞争者的的三星电子有限公司之间的斗争尤为激烈，他们在10个国家有30件法律案子。

安卓主导亚洲

引述苹果创始人，已故的史蒂文·乔布斯在他的自传中的话，他打算“毁掉安卓，因为它就是一个被偷来的产品。我愿意为之发动一次热核反应战争。”

但是今年安卓系统在亚太（日本除外）智能手机市场占到53%的广大份额，IOS则只有15%，根据科技研究公司IDC，安卓不可能失败。

“我们仍然希望安卓很多势头，尤其是“冰激凌三明治”版本（安卓4.0）。

IDC的新加坡分析师班扬·马说到，他指的安卓最新版本的名字。“这不是真正的诉讼事件。无论如何他们打算在这种背景继续下去。”

苹果公司最初控告HTC侵权十条专利权，但有6条被驳回。ITC 法官随后颁布初步裁定，在其中一项专利的最终裁定之前，HTC侵权四个专利中的两项。

美国贸易机构强加一项正式的进口禁令于HTC侵犯了专利的手机，禁令从2012年4月19号生效。HTC一半的年收入来自美国市场，但是不会受到重创，因为裁定给它时间推出避免技术问题的产品。

“这是一个有限的胜利，因为很多原因”，皮特·Toren说，美国舒尔曼·罗杰斯法律公司的知识产权顾问与合伙人。

“HTC有足够的时间进行设计，据我所知他们已经开始了，”他说。“事实上条例到明年四月才会生效，但是之后的几个月实际影响并不会感觉到。”

HTC仍然在抗争

周二的台北贸易，HTC股份上升到日最高允许额6.97%，它也得益于一家公司宣布将回购其一亿的份额。

“我们很满意这个决定，也尊重这个决定。虽然，专利647涉及的是一个很小的用户交互界面体验，但HTC仍会立即将其从HTC所有的产品中移出。”格蕾丝·雷，HTC总顾问在声明中如是说。

苹果发言人卡洛琳这样评价裁定：“我们认为竞争是健康的，但竞争对手应该创造他们自己的原创科技，而不是偷窃我们的。”

但HTC可能不会完全摆脱困境。

由于激烈的竞争，削减其第四季度收入指导之后，HTC最近一直在努力；问题仍停留在它是否能让投资者们相信，公司仍然具有使它从无名的合同制造商跻身为顶尖品牌的创新特色。

“（在HTC的问题上）我有些悲观消极”，元大证券分析师邦妮·张说。“我预计HTC第一个季度仍然不太理想，因为苹果手机运行商担心禁令，直到HTC新的模型通过，才会撤走库存。

她还说，新手机必须证明有足够获得市场份额的竞争力，因为竞争对手三星和摩托罗拉移动在第四个季度的销售非常好。

（普尔尼玛·古普塔从旧金山报道；台北Argin·张和香港李成意补充报道；安德烈·Grenon，乔纳森·斯坦丁和马特Driskill编辑）